Ballerina Arcana
 
Ballerinas have secret identities now.
 
5
 
In Maddie’s bedroom, there’s a barre where clouds
of Juul smoke gather at her childhood’s peak.
Disembodied and dispirited
voices place orders, “Dub by your new drone.”
“A nickbag in the playground after school.”
She double-entries every deal in gel
and shrouds herself in Carhartt to deliver
moans in the ribboned baggies she is known for.
 
6
 
Pri is a 4 on coach’s marked-up board –
4 as in power forward, the position;
her jersey, hopefully ignored, is 10 –
she’s lithe but hides it when she plays this sport
in baggy shorts while fans get all the face paint,
where buns are a concession. Roaring crowds            
remind her each possession she must pass –
the rock is fire, and if she shoots, they’ll see her.                   
 
7
 
Anna divines from duster coats and rinds,      
two staples of the Compost Club, the state
of angst amongst her fellow high school students.                
More oranges mean more patience for the peel.
No grapefruit means no kid could sleep that week.
The black coats flap in fairy duster rings
concentric with the guidance counselor crows,                       
circling above, ready to dive at kids who stutter.                  
 
8
 
But when Madison changes her sweats for her tights,
when Pritiya glitters her cheeks for the lights,                        
when Annabel colors her lips like a fire,
then it’s time, long past time to be done being liars
and to start the ballet: with a wide grand jeté,
with a whispered je t’aime, these are girls at their play,
deft in delight and a trolling chassé,
they defy the dull laws they’ve been taught to obey,
so explosively light that their sweet cavaliers                                     
don’t dare drop them – they land where the Fresnels bleach fears
to assemble their feet and to strike arabesques,
together they never intended burlesque
but each one of them knows when she walks out the door
her tulle will be targeted, and so will the corps.

Frank Brunner
 
If you have any thoughts on this poem, Frank Brunner would be pleased to hear them.